An Irish cottage for the weekend ...

Its a weekend with THE QUIET MAN - John Ford's immortal piece of Irish whimsy from 1952. No matter how many times I have seen it (quite a lot since I was a kid) it always comes up fresh. All those great characters to enjoy spending time with - that perfect cottage interior and were Wayne and O'Hara ever more lovable?  (above: the restored cottage for today's tourists)

The Longest Day, 1962

THE LONGEST DAY was one of the big ones in that great year 1962. I was 16 at the time but did not see it then, though have seen bits of it over the years, so it was finally interesting to sit down and see it properly. It it is of course 20th Century Fox's retelling, in crisp black and white, of the Normandy landing in 1944 done in an almost documentary style. This was producer Darryl F Zanuck's brainchild, and it is quite impressive. covering the events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.

The British had spent the 1950s re-fighting World War Two with all those films (DUNKIRK, THE CRUEL SEA,  THE DAM BUSTERS, THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM, SEA OF SAND, ICE COLD IN ALEX, REACH FOR THE SKY etc etc) keeping the likes of John Mills, Richard Todd, Kenneth More, Bogarde, Attenborough, Baker etc busy), then the all-star spectacular started arriving in the '60s, a mere 18 years after those D-Day battles, starting with THE LONGEST DAY and followed in 1963 by Carl Foreman's equally starry but downbeat THE VICTORS showing how war degrades everybody, then MGM's all-star OPERATION CROSSBOW and Rene Clement's French all-star IS PARIS BURNING? (roping in the likes of Delon, Belmondo, Montand, Signoret, Welles and visiting Americans), then the later THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR and A BRIDGE TOO FAR, as well as all the gung-ho actioners.

THE LONGEST DAY from Cornelius Ryan's book is a bit bitty, introducing us to all those guest stars for a moment or two, then we return to them later to see how they fare in the events ... the military are led by John Wayne, Mitchum, Robert Ryan and Henry Fonda looks in, and the personnel include all the young actors on the lot: Jeff Hunter, Robert Wagner, Fabian, Richard Beymer, Tom Tryon, Ray Danton etc. The British get  look in too: Welsh boys Richard Burton (on a break from CLEOPATRA) and Donald Houston, John Gregson as the padre, Todd and More, Sean Connery etc. The Germans are led by weary Curt Jurgens who cannot wake up The Fuhrer as he has taken a sleeping pill, and the French resistance seem to be led by Irina Demick (Zanuck's ladyfriend of the time). At least the German scenes are in German, and directed by German Bernhard Wicki. Ken Annakin and Andrew Morton handle the rest of the action sequences. It was a big achievement at the time, but rather unsatisfactory as there are no main characters to identify with, as we dash around seeing what all the guest stars are up to ...as the three hour running time zips by, The beach landings are not as graphic as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

White Feather, 1955

WHITE FEATHER is a perfect mid-'50s western, which somehow I never saw at the time. I was 10 or so then and seeing all those early 50s westerns with my father: JOHNNY GUITAR (the first film I saw aged 8, what a vivid introduction to cinema), SHANE, THE COMMAND, DRUM BEAT, SITTING BULL, THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ, GARDEN OF EVIL, CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA, THE MAVERICK QUEEN, THE LAST WAGON, RIVER OF NO RETURN, BROKEN LANCE etc. We kids loved anything with covered wagons and Indian attacks on forts, and heroes like Dale Robertson, Clint Walker, Audie Murphy or Guy Madison, or as teamed several times, Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. 

My father also took me to all those John Wayne and James Stewart westerns, like NIGHT PASSAGE and Ford's THE SEARCHERS, where Hunter had his immortal moment as half-breed Martin Pawley (Wagner had tested for that for Ford would not cast him, it would have been Wagner's first teaming with Natalie Wood if he had).  

WHITE FEATHER: The story of the peace mission from the US cavalry to the Cheyenne Indians in Wyoming during the 1870s. The mission is threatened when a civilian surveyor befriends the chief's son and falls for the chief's daughter.

Wagner is the  lead here, and Jeff is Little Dog, the Indian brave, with Hugh O'Brien as his sidekick.  Debra Paget is the indian princess and stodgy John Lund also features. 

We have covered Jeff Hunter several times before - he is one of "People We Like" - he of course died aged 42 in 1969, Wagner is still here and writing entertaining books, at 86, while Hugh died last year aged 91. Wagner and Hunter appeared in at least 5 films together, as well as the all-star THE LONGEST DAY, while Hunter also did five with Debra Paget - we are very partial to their 1954 PRINCESS OF THE NILE where Deb does one of her torrid dances, and Jeff wears a turban and harem pants, in old Cairo, right. Debra was back out west with Elvis in his first film LOVE ME TENDER in 1956.

WHITE FEATHER though is well done, scripted by western maestro Delmar Daves, but directed by one Robert D. Webb.  

"That'll be the day"

A western double bill, for late autumn afternoons. Only the best western ever: John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, and a routine oater from 1949 MASSACRE RIVER, only of interest now for teaming of the young Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun - see previous on them, below, or at labels.

We have written about THE SEARCHERS here before, and my 2010 appreciation on Jeffrey Hunter is at 'Jeff Hunter 1' label. Looking at Ford's classic again (I also have it on Blu-ray, as Martin would say) it is a timeless American Classic and the climax is as emotionally stunning as the end of CITIZEN KANE or CASABLANCA. Maybe they are the Top Three American Movies Of All Time?  Its certainly in my Top 10 (along with my other favourite western JOHNNY GUITAR)

The images and the scenery - did Monument Valley ever look more iconic? - stun one again, as does Ford's narrative, Wayne is superlative, Jeff Hunter has his best ever role as halfbreed Martin Pawley - he and Natalie are so poignant together, a perfect Fifties pair, Vera Miles excels as ever, and grown men cry when Ethan picks up Debbie at the end ....

Ford has some amusement too with Wayne's son Patrick and the regulars are all here from Ward Bond down. The early sequence when the settlers realise that Scar is about to attack is chilling and brilliantly done too, as is the scene where Ethan and Martin meet Debbie again in the wigwam with those scalps. Ford orchestrates it all perfectly, as per previous reports; and of course that line of Wayne's "that'll be the day" which gave Buddy Holly the title of one of his best songs ... Max Steiner's score is one of his most evocative and complements the images perfectly. 
Ethan Edwards is racist towards the Indians and the depiction of them may be problematic for some now, though Ford 'atoned' for that with his CHEYENNE AUTUMN in 1964; the squaw Martin gets married to is despatched rather heartlessly. 

MASSACRE RIVER on the other hand is pure studio dross, but a very rare film. I had ordered the dvd only to see it crop up on our Western channel, otherwise known as TCM uk. This must be where Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun got pally, as per my previous on them, and the various reports on their longtime relationship, despite their marriages, and some scurrilous rumours, but there are lots of photos of them together - just like Cary and Randy. 
They share a tub in this and one can see the chemistry between them. Calhoun was an ex-con who got into the movies, mainly rememered now for his two with Monroe and with Hayward in WITH A SONG IN MY HEART. Madison continued in westerns and dramas - both were filming in Europe by the early Sixties, Calhoun in the rather good COLOSSUS OF RHODES by Sergio Leone, so maybe they were meeting up then too. 

THE SEARCHERS though will live forever. 

Fun out west with Anne, Jeff, Rory, Randolph & Angela

I have not seen the 1942 western THE SPOILERS - but it should be fun, with John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich and Randolph Scott heading this western set in Alaska in those gold-rush days. It was remade though in 1955, with a more 50s cast: Jeff Chandler, Anne Baxter and Rory Calhoun, with some grizzled veterans like Wallace Ford and John McIntyre. 

Like Wayne's 1960 comedy western by Henry Hathaway NORTH TO ALASKA we are back in those muddy streets of Nome, Alaska, where everyone is looking for gold or trying to get their hands on others' claims. 

Anne is vamping in high style, and some eye-popping costumes, as saloon owner Cherry Malotte, the guys are merely adequate around her scheming minx, Cue lots of fighting in the mud, and much amusement as Jeff and Rory demolish the saloon bar during their extended fight at the climax. She seems to be having as much fun as she does in her next, Cecil's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Below: the 1942 trio.

A lot of Randolph Scott's westerns are being aired here just now too, usually those lean Budd Boetticher revenge dramas with Randolph as a man alone seeking those who did him wrong, as in BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, COMMANCE STATION, THE TALL T, SIX MEN FROM NOW etc 
One I had not seen before is A LAWLESS STREET from 1955 - usual story, he is the weary Sheriff of a lawless town, who wants to hand in his badge. The interest in this run of the mill one is that Angela L|ansbury plays his ex-wife who returns to town as a singer and dancer and does a rather risque musical number. Rest assured Randolph and Angela ride off in a wagon once he has dished out justice to the lawbreakers .... a pleasant timewaster then, as indeed is THE SPOILERS, I imagine Marlene and Wayne would be fun too, with Randy too of course. 

O'Hara

It was nice watching a new Sky Arts documentary on Maureen O'Hara, the latest of an occasional series, reminding one of much much we like the veteran actress who often seems overlooked in the pantheon of movie greats.

Maureen, now all of 95, is still going and received an honorary Oscar last year. She will of course be forever linked to those John Ford-John Wayne films, but has a great body of work, starting with those early films with Charles Laughton: Hitch's JAMAICA INN and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME in 1939. Born in Dublin in 1920, she was soon in America. 
I particularly liked her and Lucille Ball as showgirls in Dorothy Arzner's DANCE GIRL DANCE in 1940. Maureen then became "The Queen of Technicolor" with that flaming red hair and all those pirate and adventure movies she did in the 1940s and into the '50s: THE SPANISH MAIN, AGAINST ALL FLAGS, THE BLACK SWAN, SINBAD THE SAILOR, THE FLAME OF ARABY, TRIPOLI, LISBON where she was teamed with the likes of Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, John Payne, Ray Milland, and Rex Harrison in THE FOXES OF HARROW, as well as playing perfect wives for James Stewart and Henry Fonda in the Sixties. She and John Wayne were first paired in Ford's RIO GRANDE in 1950, then came their classic THE QUIET MAN where her Mary Kate Danaher is the spirited centre of the film. She and Wayne were also in Ford's THE WINGS OF EAGLES in 1957, and they were both in McLINTOCK! and BIG JAKE in 1971. She and Tyrone Power headed Ford's THE LONG GREY LINE in 1955.

Two of her late 1940s classics are the imperishable THE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET in 1947, where she has great rapport with the young Natalie Wood, and SITTING PRETTY in 1948 where she is the mother of the children being babysat by Mr Belvedere (Clifton Webb). She was in good company too in OUR MAN IN HAVANA in 1959, with Alec Guinness, and Disney's THE PARENT TRAP was an enormous hit in 1961 with Hayley Mills as those twins. 
She was teamed again with Brian Keith in that early Peckinhah western THE DEADLY COMPANIONS in 1961. It seems impossible to see her THE BATTLE OF THE VILLA FIORITA, a Delmar Daves romance from 1965, One of her last roles was as John Candy's Irish mother in ONLY THE LONELY in 1991, before a long retirement in County Kerry, Ireland. She ran an airline for 10 years as well, when her third husband, Charles Blair, a pilot, died in a plane crash in 1978, so she took over their Antilles Airboats, a commuter seaplane service in the Carribean, scene of her many swashbuckling adventures. So she was the first woman president of a scheduled airline in the United States, Her autobiography "Tis Herself" is an enjoyable read too. 

Maureen had a good singing voice too and did some recordings and cabaret appearances. She would have been an ideal Mrs Anna in THE KING AND I, but it seems Oscar & Hammerstein would not consider "The Queen of Technicolor" ..... but we will always have Mary Kate and her QUIET MAN. I've just had to pre-order the Blu-ray out in November, as there are so many ropey prints of it out there ...

Showpeople: visiting colleagues ...

Never seen this shot before: Montgomery Clift with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon - presumably Monty was visiting the set of SOME LIKE IT HOT, shot in 1958, released early 1959. - and below, Tony Perkins dropping in on John Wayne and Sophia Loren on LEGEND OF THE LOST, Tony and Sophia were going to do DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS next ...

and that famous shot of Brando visiting EAST OF EDEN with a rapt Julie Harris and little boy lost James Dean ... 

Heatwave movies: Hatari!

Director Howard Hawks reteams with John Wayne, who heads a group of highly skilled professional game hunters in Africa. Only they don't use bullets - they capture the ferocious big game with strong rope and cameras for zoos and circus attractions. It is an exciting business that pits man against beast. HATARI means "danger" in Swahili, but HATARI also means a spectacular adventure film.

Well yes, though some judicious editing could have removed most of Red Buttons' annoying character, Pockets - a little of him goes a long way. Nowadays we look at animals and game hunting in a different light to what we did 50 years ago .... but this remains an amiable, good-natured film, even if at least half an hour too long, at over 150 minutes! 
We see our hunters chasing all these animals - giraffe, zebra, water buffalo etc - only with the rhino does the danger element come to the fore. What is it with these macho directors and big game hunting - John Huston was always after big game too during his forays in Africa for THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN etc.

Wayne faced up nicely to young Sophia Loren a few years earlier when he was Joe January in another of our favourites, LEGEND OF THE LOST - here another Italian girl Elsa Martinelli is effortlessly chic as she and Wayne play out that Hawksian courtship - as we see from all those other Hawks items like ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, RIO BRAVO, MAN'S FAVOURITE SPORT etc. This time she doesn't actually say "I'm hard to get, all you've got to do is ask" (as Dickinson and Bacall said) but its the same situation. With Hawks, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I was stunned in MAN'S FAVOURITE SPORT - essentially the same movie as BRINGING UP BABY - the same ripped dress scene replayed by Rock Hudson and Maria Perschy, while Paula Prentiss was another delicious Hawks heroine, like Jean Artur or Angie D. Elsa Martinelli's Dallas here has to become part of the group and show she is a good sport before that romantic climax - she even gets co-opted by the local native women for that dance!. 
The baby elephants are a nice touch - as Henry Mancini provides one of his best scores, with that "Baby Elephant Walk". The protracted climax as the elephants run through Nairobi (?) looking for Dallas is joyous fun too.

So, its the usual Hawks fare - the group of men doing dangerous work and their code of comeraderie - and the outsider, the smart woman who has to prove her worth. Basically HATARI is ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS set in Africa, with added humour. 
I like too the names of Hawks' characters - the girls here are Dallas and Brandy, then there is Pockets the side-kick, RIO BRAVO had Feathers and Colorado, EL DORADO young James Caan as Mississippi. There is often an attractive younger guy in the mix in Hawks films too: Dewey Martin in LAND OF THE PHAROAHS, Ricky Nelson in RIO BRAVO, Caan in EL DORADO (virtually a remake of RIO BRAVO) and here we get two of them - European actors Gerard Blain (The Frenchman) and Hardy Kruger (The German), who head off together to Paris. HATARI too has that 1962 look in spades - its nice to pour a long cool drink or three, and settle down for a couple of hours in that Hawksian universe.  I hope no baby elephants were harmed during its making. Right: BRINGING UP BABY redux?

John Wayne in London, 1975

Following on from checking out Gary Cooper in London in 1959, see recent post below, I have now discovered a proper lulu - John Wayne as BRANNIGAN, a DIRTY HARRY type cop taking on the London underworld in the mid-70s, complete with that trashy '70s look, in Douglas Hickox's vastly entertaining movie. BRANNIGAN was the kind of fodder at the local cinema that a young movie buff like me wouldn't bother with in 1975 - we had more arty things by the big boys (Antonioni, Kubrick) to go see (like THE PASSENGER or BARRY LYNDON), but now it could be a new cult classic. It is dizzyingly enteraining, very well cast with all the usual types, as Big John shoots it up and causes car chases, fist fights and general mayhem. A cheerful cheesefest then, with Big John amiably guying his usual shoot-em-ups.

As I said before we grew up on John Wayne films in Ireland - THE QUIET MAN and THE SEARCHERS will always be Top 20 movies for me, and we liked going to see stuff like THE SEA CHASE or THE CONQUEROR and of course RIO BRAVO, followed by good-natured romps like NORTH TO ALASKA and another perfect Hawks film HATARI! ... I also loved LEGEND OF THE LOST in 1957 (Loren, Wayne labels) where he and young Sophia Loren are ideal together in this Sahara western - which was photographed by the great Jack Cardiff, he amusingly relates in his book MAGIC HOUR how Wayne came on set, as explorer Joe January, dressed in his usual cowboy gear. Cardiff asks directed Henry Hathaway"why is he dressed like a cowboy?" Hathaway replies "He always dresses like that" ...

Back to BRANNIGAN - Wayne's detective arrives in London to collect and take back two Mr Bigs: John Vernon (as good as he was in Hitch's TOPAZ) and the oily Mel Ferrer. Brannigan is given pert young Judy Geeson as his driver/assistant, and she looks better here than she did in the dreadful GOODBYE GEMINI IN 1970 (Trash label) and seems to be enjoying herself; Richard Attenborough is the pompous Scotland Yard chief who seems to operate from his Mayfair gentleman's club, assisted by a silent John Stride, while James Booth, Del Henney and others play various sleazy underworld types. I was delighted too to see Pauline Delaney again - she specialised in playing randy Irish landladies (as with Alan Bates in NOTHING BUT THE BEST or with Rod Taylor in YOUNG CASSIDY - '60s label), she is Mrs Cooper here whom Brannigan is billeted with. Wayne seemed relaxed and having fun (its his second last film), he was so iconic in the '50s, but here he is rather an outdated dinosaur with a toupee, but it is all good-natured fun where everyone seems to be in on the joke and having a laugh. An endearing trash classic then, and a fascinating look at mid-70s London. (Wayne is 68 here, he died 4 years later in '79, after those last roles in ROOSTER COGBURN and THE SHOOTIST in '76.

Movies I love: The Scarlet Empress (Jet Pilot is O.K.!)

Or MOROCCO, SHANGHAI EXPRESS, BLOND VENUS, or THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN - all as spell-binding as Von Sternberg/Dietrich's 1934 classic THE SCARLET EMPRESS - and lets not forget THE BLUE ANGEL or DISHONOURED ...

Young Princess Sophia of Germany is taken to Russia to marry the half-wit Grand Duke Peter, son of the Empress. The domineering Empress hopes to improve the royal blood line. Sophia doesn't like her husband, but she likes Russia, and is very fond of Russian soldiers. She dutifully produces a son -- of questionable fatherhood, but no one seems to mind that. After the old empress dies, Sophia engineers a coup d'etat with the aid of the military, does away with Peter, and becomes Catherine the Great.

That's the bones of the story, as delirious as Marlene emerging from the gorilla suit in BLOND VENUS, or the journey on the SHANGHAI EXPRESS, or that mythical Spain of THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN... or the exotic settings of Von Sternberg's MACAO or THE SHANGHAI GESTURE ....

THE SCARLET EMPRESS was the sixth and most expensive of their 7 films together but did not perform too well at the box office. Maybe it was too expensive, opulent, staggeringly visual for audiences just coming out of the depression and preferred simpler, most optimistic and accessible subjects? There was also that other version of the Catherine The Great story a more basic version. This one is a lurid tale set in 18th century barbaric Russia about the corruption of an innocent young girl forced into marriage with a despotic halfwit. As with all Von Sternberg films the camerawork and sets are stupendous. Dietrich ages as the young princess (her daughter Maria plays her in the early scenes). It is a stunning work full of great moments with those enormous sets.   

Marlene is dazzling, but so is John Lodge making a very attractive foil for our wilful princess.... 

JET PILOT, 1957 - Von Sternberg's last film was also screened this week and remains an odd curiosity, produced as it was for Howard Hughes. We all know Howard's prediliction for the female form and he certainly gets young Janet Leigh into all kinds of poses as she changes from her bulky flying outfit to having a shower and posing in her mini tee shirt, with that chest jutting out ... no wonder Howard kept tinkering with this material shot in 1950 when Janet was a lovely pert ingenue, until 1957 when it finally saw the light of day and Janet was a much older leading lady. (In 1958's THE VIKINGS her chest is equally eye-catching, and of course PSYCHO starts with her in her bra ...)

The airline footage is terrific of course, and 1957 also saw another defecting Russian, the equally oddly-paired Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope in THE IRON PETTICOAT farrago, and let's not forget Cyd Charisse in the remake of NINOTCHA, that SILK STOCKINGS musical, which I like a lot. The Cold War has a lot to answer for !

Janet here looks more like Wayne's daughter than romantic lead - he fared much better with 23 year old Sophia Loren in LEGEND OF THE LOST, also 1957. So THE CONQUEROR was not the worst of Wayne's for RKO, though JET PILOT now has the Universial-International logo. It must surely have been a colossal dud back in 1957 ? Of course its main point of interest now (apart from Janet's attractions) is it was directed by the legendary Von Sternberg ... his last credit, and writer Jules Furthman (who scripted Von Sternberg's SHANGHAI EXPRESS and BLOND VENUS) only did the screenplay for RIO BRAVO after this. Left: Janet with Von Sterberg.

Up, up and away ...

A perfect day's viewing for New Year's Day: a discovery, an old favourite, and an absolute horror: in other words: UP, LEGEND OF THE LOST and the 2010 ROBIN HOOD ...as well as those Divas (below) ..

UP was one Pixar cartoon I somehow missed - but I loved and saw FINDING NEMO several times, and the TOY STORY films. UP is dazzlingly inventive, amusing and emotional by turn. 

Young Carl Fredrickson meets a young adventure-spirited girl named Ellie. They both dream of going to a lost land in South America. 70 years later, Ellie has died. Carl remembers the promise he made to her. Then, when he inadvertently hits a construction worker, he is forced to go to a retirement home. But before they can take him, he and his house fly away by tying thousands of balloons to his home . However, he has a stowaway aboard: an 8-year-old boy named Russell. Together, they embark on an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain and a rare bird named Kevin

This plays out delightfully and socks an emotional punch as well. I have to get the dvd now and make sure my friends see it too. A great movie to share with a loved one .... Maybe the best Pixar ? as directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, with the cast voices led by Edward Asner.

I have written about  LEGEND OF THE LOST a few times here before - here is what I said in 2010:

"I loved the 1957 Henry Hathaway adventure LEGEND OF THE LOST when I saw it as a kid and had become fascinated by Sophia Loren (from the previous year's BOY ON A DOLPHIN and that Italian film WOMAN OF THE RIVER) and its still terrific now - call it what you will: a Sahara western, an oater, a programmer - its still terrific entertainment as John Wayne (iconic as ever), 23 year old Sophia, and Rosanno Brazzi trek into the Sahara from Timbuktu in search of lost treasure and find that ancient Roman ruined city which looks rather like Leptis Magna in Libya (one of those places I must get to see...).

What rises this above the usual films of its type though is that it was photographed by Jack Cardiff - the desert never looked more attractive, well apart from in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Whether its Sophia cooking by sunset or deep in the ruined city it always looks terrific. The shots are as good as any in those other classics lensed and lit by Cardiff: BLACK NARCISSUS, PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, THE RED SHOES, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH etc. Jack also pulled off the same trick with Fleisher's THE VIKINGS - that too still looks perfect now, as does his work on THE AFRICAN QUEEN, WAR AND PEACE, THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL etc - Ekberg, both Hepburns, Loren, Monroe, Ava, Leigh etc all look their best when lit by Jack Cardiff. Cardiff's book MAGIC HOUR has a very interesting chapter on it and his chaste romance with Sophia .... "

I had wanted to see Ridley Scott's ROBIN HOOD but negative reviews put me off, so I thought I would wait for the dvd, but now here it is on tv. I began recording it but alighted on it during the last half hour and could not believe what I was seeing. This is a very grim dour take on the legend .... no wonder the original Maid Marian Sienna Miller had to be replaced, she would have looked far too young for Russell Crowe here, but Cate Blanchett seems all wrong too and the sight of her in armour and fighting battles is plain ludicrous. After seeing that sea battle where the French arrive in what looks like scenes from a D-Day landing World War II film, with all the usual bloodshed and sheer carnage - and of course the south coast is nowhere near Nottingham - I just did not want to see the rest of it. Eileen Atkins (replacing Vanessa Redgrave) seemed wasted too as Eleanor of Aquitaine. If you are going to do Robin Hood give me the legend any time - 

I remember watching Olivia De Havilland in 1972 watching herself and Erroll Flynn riding in the forest in the sparkling 1938 film, when she appeared at London's National Film Theatre - that was 40 years ago, she is still here now in her 90s, as is her sister Joan - and we liked the '52 Disney Richard Todd version too (where Martita Hunt was a splendid Queen Eleanor) and the derided Kevin Costner one was a lot of fun, particularly when Geraldine McEwan and Alan Rickman were on-screen. This though, like Scott's KINGDOM OF HEAVEN or that recent TROY looks totally unreal - even the sea and the ships seems CGI ... Mark Strong again impresses as the best heavy around. There are over 520 mainly negative reviews of it over at IMDB, reading just a few of them is enough as they itemize everything that is wrong with this film from the script and music to the actual story.  Of course there really was no need for yet another Robin Hood film as they thought they were being clever deconstructing the legend ... Richard Lester's 1976 ROBIN AND MARIAN is the one to beat.